Ada was sexually abused by a police officer, but was advised by the police not to go to court
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
The police officer who sexually abused Ada was dealt with in an internal police investigation.
The police told Ada it was better not to prosecute him because her name would probably be made public.
When Ada was eight years old her parents got divorced. Her mum later found a new partner, but she says ‘It was really hard because I didn’t get on well with him … he wasn’t very nice’.
Her mum had an ‘on–off’ relationship with this man for many years. She also took in lodgers so there were often strangers coming and going in the house.
Ada says ‘I felt pushed out and spent a lot of time alone in my room, from about 11 onwards’.
She did see her dad regularly but she felt alone and unsupported. She was picked on at primary school about her appearance.
By the time Ada was in Year 9 at secondary school, she had become depressed and was having thoughts of suicide. Her doctor prescribed medication and she had counselling, but the therapists regularly changed.
But, she says, ‘I wasn’t ready to say anything because I didn’t have a trusting relationship with any of them’.
When she was about 13, Ada joined a cadets group. Initially, she really enjoyed it and she liked the other people who attended.
Ada felt she could trust the leaders, particularly one of the females. ‘I don’t remember how it happened, but we would chat and then email each other. It became deep quite quickly because I was craving someone to talk to, because I wasn’t getting that anywhere else. I became dependent on having her to confide in.’
She was very sad when this leader left. Ada says that attending cadets was her one interest in life. After that, a few different leaders came and went, and police officers would also attend to give talks.
One police sergeant began appearing quite regularly. The cadet leaders were aware of Ada’s mental health problems and she knows that this sergeant had also been told.
He began talking to Ada on social media. In the sessions that followed, he would come and chat to her about what they had said online. The messages became more regular, and Ada shared her diaries with him. ‘I think I wanted him to understand … he was offering me a listening ear.’
The sergeant read the diaries and invited Ada to the police station for chats, and to meet him outside for coffee.
She says ‘the fact he was showing interest and giving me time felt special. I guess I had “daddy issues”’.
After about six to 12 months, the online messages became sexual. The police officer told Ada he wanted to kiss her. She says ‘I will probably never understand why I went along with it. I think I was craving attention and it felt exciting’.
The first time Ada met the officer outside, he drove her to a deserted area. ‘He wanted to kiss me and touch me, but I said no because he had a wife and children and it was wrong’ Ada says.
‘I remember he changed at that’ she says, explaining that he dropped her off a long way outside the town.
She now thinks he had planned to rape her.
The officer continued giving Ada attention and she kept meeting up with him. ‘I don’t understand why I did, but I felt like I was escaping with him … he was genuinely interested in me. That kept me going back.’
When Ada was 17, ‘out of the blue’ he sent her a photograph of his penis, and asked her to send a photo of herself naked. One night he turned up at Ada’s house when her mum was out. He kissed her and tried to force her legs apart. Ada told him to stop and he left.
On another occasion, the police officer invited Ada to the police station. He took her into an interview room and locked the door, then started kissing her and touching her. She says ‘By that point I was starting to feel scared of him. That was the last time I met up with him’.
Ada called the former leader she had been close to, who told her she had to report what the officer had done. Her mum drove her to a police station out of town. Ada was interviewed on video and an internal investigation was carried out. Ada’s phone and laptop were taken and she was warned not to talk about it.
Ada says her mum was not at all supportive; she felt Ada had ‘gone along with it’. Ada says ‘She didn’t understand the concept of grooming’.
The investigation lasted a year. The police told Ada it was in her best interests not to go to court because it was likely her name would get out. She says ‘I don’t like to regret things but my greatest regret is we didn’t go to court’.
The officer was dismissed. Ada is now pursuing a civil case against the police.
Ada does not like being alone with men; even getting into a taxi alone makes her anxious. She has a long-term partner but has problems with intimacy and touching. She also has physical problems caused by anxiety.
She comments ‘I’d like to see better safeguarding in schools and activities’. She adds that she went to the houses of different leaders, for innocent reasons, but she now believes this should not have been allowed.